In his book he talks about praying audacious prayers.  Prayers that seem unbelievable and impossible.  Prayers that when you look at how they were answered there is no question that it was a move of God on your behalf.  The idea is what happens when you dare to ask God for the impossible? Obviously where I am in my life right now I am praying audacious prayers.  I can’t even begin to share with you the prayers I am praying.  The impossible and unbelievable prayers that I am praying. Furtick says, “If the size of your vision for your life isn’t intimidating to you, there’s a good chance it’s insulting to God.”  All I feel right now is that the impossible is set before me so I am praying that God would act mightily on my behalf and open doors that no one can explain.  I so badly want God to get the glory in whatever situation I am in and whatever outcome happens because of it.

It got me thinking as I have had more time to study and pray, what are some of the great prayers in the Bible that I have read recently?  Here are just a few.

• Nehemiah 1
• Isaiah 36:14-20
• 2 Kings 19
• 1 Samuel 38:1-8
• 1 Kings 18:41-46
• James 5:17-18
• Acts 12:5
• Acts 4:31
• 1 Samuel 1
• 2 Samuel 5:17-25
• 1 Kings 3:3-15
• Joshua 10:12-15
• Colossians 1:9-12

What are some of your audacious prayers?  Are you praying any?  Are you asking God to take your ordinary ingredients and mash it with God’s extraordinary expertise?

SUN STAND STILL QUOTE: “If the dream in your heart isn’t biblically based, focused on Jesus, affirmed by the key people in your life, and tethered to your passions, gifts, and life experiences, chances are, you’re way off prompt…Be careful that you don’t mistake a delusion for a true vision…Accomplishing the impossible is all about seeing the invisible.”

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1. REACH out to people.
2. REMEMBER a person’s name.
3. RECOGNIZE a person’s potential.
4. REQUEST information about them.
5. Be RESPECTFUL.
6. RELATE on their level.
7. Be RELIABLE.
8. Give REASSURANCE to people.
9. Be a RESOURCE for people.
10. REQUEST their help.

As I read through that list I thought there is at least one missing.  RESPOND.  People want to know just as much about you as you do about them.  There is a certain level of transparency that is required of a leader if the people they lead are to trust them.  There is a level of understanding that people need to have that lets them know you are just like them.

When you ask good questions you will see what they really care about.  You’ll find out about their future dreams and goals.  You’ll find out about what they cry about or what they sing and laugh about.  To do this you must become a good listener and when the time is right you must become a good responder.

There are at least 10 things to discover about someone in order to have a better understanding of them and this is a two way street.

1. Their background
2. Their present situation or station in life
3. Their personality
4. Their spiritual gift (s)
5. Their natural abilities
6. Their dreams for the future
7. Their hurts -past and present
8. Their joys -past and present
9. Their priorities
10. Their key influencers as well as who their friends are

Remember as a leader “you must care more about who they are than what they do.” -Perry Noble. You can have good people skills and not be a good leader, but you cannot be a good leader without good people skills.

As a leader use your head to gain knowledge of people.  As a leader use your heart to demonstrate a concern for people.  As a leader use your hands to help people.  As a leader use your life to connect with people.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  Everybody wants to be someone.  Everyone needs someone.  Take the time to discover the potential that others do not see in themselves and point it out to them.  Be real with people and let them into your life.

Here are a couple thoughts on leadership.

1. Leaders think BIG.  Visionaries have the potential to see what others don’t.  They also have the ability to communicate that vision clearly and compel others to rally around the vision.
2. Leaders think details.  How to get from point A to point B.
3. Leaders think continually.  More importantly they listen continually.
4. Leaders think bottom line.
5. Leaders think improvement.
6. Leaders think innovation.  How can we make it right, better or more inspiring?  How can others be as passionate about this as we are.

1. The fight to keep people happy.  It’s not possible.  People will talk, complain, argue and fight.  So please HIM and not them.  The very people that you try to always make happy may actually be the very people who turn on you in the end.  Jesus never made everyone happy, I believe a group of people killed him because they were not happy with Him.  I have made a lot of people unhappy in my life.  My parents, my sibling, my wife, my kids, my boss, my friends and countless other people.  Happiness should not be our goal in life.
2. The fight to have all the answers. You don’t know it all.  You never will.  There is a reason you have a team around you.  ”Refusing to admit that you don’t know something isn’t showing your weakness…but rather revealing your pride.”  Sometimes others are not challenging authority or being unloyal, sometimes they are simply leaders, leading.  I can’t tell you how many times I have been wrong but argued my way out only to look stupid in the eyes of the other person.  I love Proverbs now more than ever because I see that those who appear to have all the answers look foolish, but those who are quiet actually come across looking wise.  I want to be known as someone who is wise.  So this is a fight that I am walking through.
3. The fight to be “well balanced.” Trust me you won’t.  Not possible.  Too much time is spent on perfecting weaknesses.  Find your strengths and spend a majority of your time on those.  There is a reason you are gifted in those areas.  Nobody is good at everything.  I can’t go up to a sound technician and tell them how to balance their mix.  They know more than me.  You sometimes have to focus only on what you are good at instead of everything.  Bring people along side of you who’s strengths are your weaknesses and as a team you will be complete.  Know what your weaknesses are and have accountability in your life to guard yourself from them.  Don’t try to balance everything.  It won’t happen.  You have to say NO to good things so you can say YES to the best things.  I have failed too many times in life on trying to balance everything.  Somebody or something will eventually fall.
4. The fight to have complete assurance that something will work out. Everything is an experiment.  We walk by FAITH and not by SIGHT.  Faith comes by HEARING the voice of God.  Not the voices of the mockers or the supporters and noot the voices in your head.  The voice of God.  Even then it takes faith.  God will show you what to do but it takes faith and faith is scary.  The key is understanding your not alone.  You will never be 100% about anything except for the security of your faith in Christ.  Even that will shake but not because of Christ, it’s because of us.

So confrontation can be messy when we try to win the fight.  It can be messy when we have an arrogance about us that we can’t be wrong or that we know more because we’ve don’t this longer.  I have been there to many times.  I always fail at confrontation and communication when:

• I don’t line up all the facts.
• When I encounter a person when I am angry.
• When I am vague about the problem.
• When I don’t get their side of the story.
• When I harbor a grudge and don’t forgive them.
• When I don’t give the other person a way out, to make it right.

All confrontations should be looking for a solution.  Sometimes the hardest person to confront is the person staring you back in the mirror.

1. He called them to be with Him and He called them with a purpose in mind.  He called them the way they were with all their faults and deficiencies.
2. He began to develop  them to reach their potential, even though they were far from being champions when He started with them.
3. He took them with Him on day to day activities.
4. He taught them.  At times he taught by simply asking them questions.
5. He game them ministry opportunities with clear assignments.  He gave them power.
6. He took the time to hear their reports and gave words of encouragement to them.  Told them to rest.
7. He answered their questions and their request for information.
8. He gave them assignments so He could do His ministry.
9. He let them get a close up view of who He was, letting them in on the inside.  Teams buy into the leader before the vision.
10. He intervened in their lives when He suspected problems.  He was close enough to them to know there was problems.
11. He corrected them when they were wrong.
12. He enjoyed fellowshiped with them.
13. He prayed for and with His disciples.
14. He dealt with their failures and restored them to service when the time was right.
15. He commissioned them and empower them to carry on the work He started.

When you look at who He had to work with it is amazing that the church exists today.

• Peter- impulsive, impatient and a denier.
• James and John- sons of thunder, judgmental, un-compassionate and inconsiderate.
• Thomas- was a doubter.
• Philip- was slow to understand and learn.
• Nathaniel- was questioning and cynical.
• Matthew- was a tax collector.
• Judas- was a schemer, betrayer and a thief.
• All of them were position conscious, not servants.  They were self-centered and thinking only of themselves, not ever of Jesus.  They did not know how to pray, did not know about the last days, did not understand the ministry of John the Baptist, did not know about the Holy Spirit, had little faith, were scripturally ignorant and were fearful and ran in the face of opposition.  As a group they fought with each other, they did not understand the big picture, they were afraid to ask questions, they argued whether Jesus would use an IPhone or a Blackberry, they bickered over the level of the sound system in the auditorium, who would get the biggest budget, who reserved the space first to do their program and who should be able to hire an assistant.

I think you get the point that the same arguments of then are the same arguments today of those we lead.  Maybe that is why we don’t lead like Jesus because all of that takes hard work.  Maybe we don’t lead like Jesus because we put so much hope in potential and when it doesn’t work out like we thought we just give up and stop leading and start doing.  Maybe we don’t lead like Jesus because we are not close enough to Him to know how to lead like that.  Maybe we don’t lead like Jesus because were not perfect.

Nobody will ever be the perfect leader, but just because we won’t be the perfect leader doesn’t mean we can’t work towards being a great leader.  Based on what I see in the scripture, Jesus was a great leader because He was personal and He got into the lives of those He led.  I don’t think it was the big numbers and miracles that drew the disciples to Jesus it was the fact that He called them, empowered them, walked with them and at the end of the day He called them friends.

Does your life have a mission statement?

1. It gives your life DIRECTION.  Life is like a road.  Some roads are rough and bring destruction.  Some roads have dead ends, some without the possibility of making a U-turn.  All roads lead to a destination, but it may not be the destination we want.  Our mission statement puts us on the road toward a desired destination.
2. It give your life MEANING.  It helps determine what is really important.  It moves you from just going through life to investing your life.

When it comes to life there are several ways to approach it.

• With your life you can struggle for survival.  One purpose-don’t die.
• With your life you can maintain the status quo.  Average is good enough.
• With your life you can strive for security.  Get ahead, but don’t take a risk.
• With your life you can labor for success.  Get ahead no matter how.
• With your life you can seek for satisfaction.  Moving upward God’s way.
• With your life you can invest for significance.  Making a difference in others.

To be honest with you your mission statement may change based on the season of life that you are in.  Sometimes the direction you end up heading is not the direction you intended when you started.  Sometimes God has to step in and take charge of your mission statement and make it His mission statement.

Question:  What is your mission statement?

Procrastination is basically putting off until another time what should be done now. The procrastination motto is, “I think I can, I think I could, I think I may, I think I should.  I think I might, I think I will.  I think I better think more still.”  One procrastinator said, “Procrastination is my greatest sin.  It brings me endless sorrow.  I’m going to stop doing it, perhaps I’ll start tomorrow.”  We’ve all used the saying “I’ll do it later” or if “I only had more time”  Here are some things to remember about time.

1. We use all of our time – some of it productively and some of it is has to be considered wasted.
2. We all waste time.  We waste time for a various amount of reasons.
3. We cannot change time.
4. We cannot increase the quality of time.
5. We cannot do everything.
6. We need to see time as a valuable resource to mankind.
7. We can attempt to schedule our time.
8. We must invest our time.

None of us will be like Joshua in the Bible who received several extra hours to finish a battle.  So we all must learn to manage our time better.  If you figure out how to do this you should write a book and I’ll try to find time to read it.  Question: How do you invest or spend your time?

Here are nine good questions to ask.

1. Is there a WARNING to heed?
2. Is there a PROMISE to claim?
3. Is there a SIN to forsake?
4. Is there a COMMAND to obey?
5. Is there a LESSON to learn?
6. Is there a PRINCIPLE to apply?
7. Is there an EXAMPLE to follow?
8. Is there a BLESSING to expect?
9. Is there a SERVICE to perform?

How about you? What questions are you asking?  Have any others to add to this list?

One of the things I noticed is how well they prepared the field even for a Nationals game.  I don’t know if this is an MLB standard or if it is different for each team? Each guy took ownership and meticulously  fulfilled their role.  From how the batting cage is rolled away to how how the dirt is smoothed out, to how the lines on the grass are brushed to create a light and dark effect.  How the infield is watered, the lines are chalked to how members of the ground crew walk the field to make sure there is nothing on it.  They demand the best of themselves and for their team.  What intrigued me is they do this in all ballparks across the country.  Whether your team is in first place or last place you would never know based on the field and how it is prepped or how it looks at the end.

It made me think about the church.  Do we put in the same effort to share Jesus with people who will never step foot in our church?  The same effort that if we go out of our way to connect with them and invest with them and they go to the “other” church, was it a waste of time?  Would we put in the same effort if we knew that going into the relationship?  So many times we determine how we will live out our faith based on whether we will “win” or “lose” the hearts of those we are trying to connect with.  Maybe a lesson can be learned from grounds keepers at a baseball game.  The grounds keeper puts in the same effort to prep a field not based on the record of winning and losing but because they simply are connecting people to one of the greatest games…baseball.  It does not matter if they connect with you or your church because at the end of the day the goal is simply to connect them with Jesus.  Eventually we will learn that it is not about us.  There is a purpose and a goal much bigger than the individual.